Blackberry says the letter “contemplates”Fairfax Financial Holdings Ltd. buying the company for $9 per share in cash. Fairfax will have six weeks to conduct due diligence. It appears that Fairfax can walk away without any penalty if it finds anything in its diligence–or possibly for any reason whatsoever. BlackBerry says Fairfax is “seeking” financing from Bank of America Merrill Lynch and BMO Capital Markets. That’s far short of the popular “highly confident” posture more typical of proposals.

Public company acquisitions generally don’t utilize letters of intent; they are announced with the signing of a definitive agreement. Blackberry says such an agreement is not scheduled to be signed in this deal until Nov. 4, following the completion of due diligence.

Public companies avoid early announcement of deals because buyers won’t commit to a deal until they can complete their due diligence. And, without committed financing, the risk of losing a deal could be substantial.

That can leave a seller without a deal, but having announced it wanted to sell and possibly being viewed as damaged goods. That can leave employees, customers and suppliers uncertain about the company’s future.

Plus, a buyer not legally committed to go forward can hold all the cards in the final negotiations (at least if a competing deal does not surface). Every problem found in the due diligence could be a reason to renegotiate the price. Think of a home inspection in a terrible real-estate market: every cracked tile and scratch can lead to a purchase-price allowance at the closing.

Those are the concerns of most companies.

But BlackBerry isn’t your typical seller.

Its results are terrible. It has already announced the layoff of 40% of its employees, and it is exiting from consumer sales. In short, BlackBerry looks desperate for a deal.

In that scenario, the letter of intent doesn’t look so bad. Fairfax clearly isn’t ready to sign the type of binding agreement most companies insist on before announcing a deal. And even if Fairfax does seek to renegotiate after diligence, a price less than $9 per share probably looks better to BlackBerry than no deal at all. And if BlackBerry continues in its current pace of free fall, a deal at anything like this price might not be available at all.

BlackBerry will have to pay Fairfax 30 cents a share (or 3% of the deal price) if it walks away from Fairfax during the letter-of-intent phase (or 50 cents a share following a definitive agreement). But at this point BlackBerry probably would style itself very lucky to have found a better transaction.

Signing a letter-of-intent is an unusual move for a seller because most companies want to play their cards close to their vest in negotiating a deal. But in the case of BlackBerry, having the public know that it is working toward a goal of a definitive deal with Fairfax may convince everyone that there is a solution to the problems out there and stop the bleeding. At least for now.